Can you use Kathy Griffin's name as a verb?
I can't think of a better way to describe what satire site The Onion did to itself recently with a picture of Walt Disney's Goofy holding a bloody crowbar and the headline "Goofy Beats Ron DeSantis to Death with Crowbar."
Not only is the image reminiscent of Kathy Griffin's bloody Trump face, so is the visceral reaction of people across the country.
And of course there were plenty of references to everyone's new favorite satire site: The Babylon Bee.
Beyond the unveiled threats against DeSantis's life, another reason why The Onion's joke fell flat is that there was zero context. It was just a "News in Photos" feature. There's no accompanying story with the photo.
Why would Goofy want to kill DeSantis?
Is it because Florida took away Disney's special tax protections when the House of Mouse declared its desire to see little kids learn about sexual deviancy in schools and get their body parts hacked off?
I mean not to do their job for them, but they could have at least included some cheesy assassin one-liners like "Gawrsh, did you think you could just move in on the Mouse's cheese and get away with it" or "Guess he won't be saying ‘gay' ever again, a-hyuck" or even "Nikki Haley sends her regards!"
But a mascot with a crowbar covered in DeSantis's blood is just a veiled threat.
Kathy Griffin never really recovered from her bad joke. According to a recent interview, she‘s been suffering from PTSD since 2017 because of the backlash to the Trump-face fiasco.
Who knows if The Onion will recover from theirs.
